There are numerous situations in which a relatively soft, planar material needs to be cut into a particular shape, and then decorated with paint or a similar material, to create on the cut shape a design. Examples include foodstuffs such as cookies, biscuits, canapes, and tea sandwiches, as well as items such as ceramic tiles and ornaments. Because cookies are the most common example of such, much of the following description will be directed to cookie cutting and decoration, although this should not be taken as a limitation to the scope of the invention.
To make decorated cookies, it is necessary to first cut the cookie from cookie dough using a cookie cutter, and then decorate the cookie using frosting, sprinkles, candy, or edible paint, for example. Frosting and painting require artistic ability and a steady hand for good results.
It is possible to more carefully decorate a cookie using a cookie stencil, which is a flat plate with a number of openings arranged to create a design. The plate is placed on the cookie, and frosting or paint is applied through the openings onto the cookie. When the stenciling is done, the stencil is lifted off of the cookie, and the cookie is baked.
However, since the stencil is not a part of the cookie cutter, the baker needs to keep separate sets of cookie cutters and stencils, which uses valuable kitchen shelf space, and requires additional organization. Also, in use the stencils must be carefully lifted from the cookie after the design is complete so as not to smear the design, or damage the fragile cookie dough. The flat stencil plates are fairly difficult to carefully grip and remove in this manner. Thus, stencil plates are relatively difficult to use and may not result in a high quality, pleasingly decorated cookie.
The shape of such stencil plates, and of the design carried by the plate, bears no relationship to the shape of the cookie. This can result in less than all of the design fitting on an already-cut cookie, or require the cookie to be overly large in order to carry the whole design. Also, because the cutters and stencils are separate, the stencil design cannot be integrated with the cookie shape.
Stencilling is also distinguished from embossing. Embossing requires a structure which interacts with and shapes the material. Thus, the embossing surface cannot be flat. In contrast, stencilling contemplates openings in a plate which sits very near (and preferably directly on) the material, but which do not themselves have any effect on the material.